Archives for June 2015

Complaints.com is one of the more civilized complaint sites online. It is run by a U.S.-based company in Chicago called Sagacity Corporation. To be “sagacious” is to have good judgment, be knowledgeable and shrewd. Like most complaint sites, Complaints.com enables anyone to post whatever they want but it fairly clearly spells out that it wants truthful complaints. We can remove Complaints.com complaints but recommend that you follow its procedures too – because the site at least has meaningful removal policies.

Complaints.com wants its complaints to be, among other things:

An actual, firsthand experience of a consumer

Written by the actual consumer

G-rated, so it is suitable for family audiences.

Constructive, so not just a bash.

They want the complaint author to be attempting to get some sort of resolution.

As hated complaint sites go, TheDirty.com is one of the most visually interesting while also being outspoken about its first amendment rights. Anyone can post pretty much whatever they want on The Dirty, and the site’s founder Nik Richie will defend it, I imagine, to the death.

We can remove TheDirty.com posts, but the site continues to grow in authority due to its nearly constant flow of salacious content. There’s lots of bashing and lots of T & A.

In its defense, The Dirty publishes an exhaustive list of legal frequently asked questions. Most focus on why they won’t remove anything posted on the site, save of a few narrowly specific exceptions.Read more

Scam.com is another of the complaint websites that has built authority by enabling anyone to say whatever they want online. Just the idea of being on this site should scare the heck out of any company. What’s worse than being called a scam? Sure, a company might have a problem with a customer who then lodges a “complaint.” But complaints can usually be remedied in some manner. In business, being called a scam is like a mortal wound.

We can remove scam.com posts, but as I have said before it doesn’t mean that we have to agree with how the site operates and the damage that it can cause.

I guess the main beef with sites like Scam.com is that they let anyone say anything they want but then don’t really do anything else. Back in the golden age of television news, shows like 60 Minutes and 20/20 (and to a lesser extent local consumer reporters) would uncover actual scams and then actually do something about it. The great Mike Wallace would chase down executives who scammed people and make them answer for their ill-gotten gains. Even consumer groups provided some relief for folks who were legitimately scammed. Sadly, sites like Scam.com seem to mainly promote an open forum that does as much harm as good to companies, institutions and brands.Read more

As names go for complaint sites, this one certainly resonates well with any customer who gets upset and wants to vent. Although somewhat indelicate in language, we all do get “pissed off” by companies and therefore become a “pissedconsumer.” The website with that very name, Pissedconsumer.com, has been steadily growing in popularity, much to the chagrin of many business owners.

As I like to say, we can remove Pissed Consumer reviews, but it doesn’t mean we have to be fans of the site.

Claiming more than 350,000 reviews covering 48,000 companies in more than 100 industries, the site appears rather transparent about its complaints. Companies like Direct TV, Pizza Hut, Walmart, AT&T, Lowes, Best Buy and UPS are some of its most complained-about companies, and a heat map shows popular cities for reviews. As one might imagine, big cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have the most complaints, but pissed consumers in cities like Pittsburgh, Memphis and Albuquerque also get their licks in.Read more

Without question, the Internet opened up communications to the entire world. Yet enabling anyone to say whatever they want – about anything – has many downsides. We can remove Complaints Board complaints and messages from Google search, but it doesn’t mean we like everything that the site stands for.

Complaint websites, such as Complaintsboard.com, fill a need in the overall online community but also empower people to spread negative information and, unfortunately, lie and mislead.

In a perfect world, individuals would post information to sites like this with only the best of intent. And, it’s not a bad thing that consumers have a chance to voice their opinions. The problem is that Complaintsboard.com basically hands the Internet microphone to anyone who wants to say something and doesn’t police what is next blasted-out for the world to hear.

If you check the site’s terms of use, you will see that accuracy is not part of its mission. Here are few highlights:

Not responsible for validity of consumer complaints.

Not responsible for providing responses or notifying those who receive complaints.

Will only remove a posted message if ordered to by a court.

The site assumes the writer has positive intent. (I love this one because I don’t think a complaint is ever intended to be positive.)

The site does not edit or censor posts, but it doesn’t investigate for accuracy either.

You can read the terms of use yourself and see that I’m not exaggerating. The site is strictly serving as a mouthpiece, and no one is checking the facts or helping those who get attacked.

We have developed strategies to take on Complaints Board and remove Complaints Board postings. Contact us to discuss and we can give you options.

For the past two years, I have been building a segment of my business around helping people with online problems.

Striving to get negative content removed from search on behalf of my clients has been, without question, one of the most interesting things I have done in my 25-year career in public relations.

I gained interest in the practice due to a number of factors. Part of it was directly related to hearing an increasing number of online horror stories, and the other part of it has to do with my sometimes overly righteous personality. I have strong opinions about what is fair and what is unfair in life, and the Internet can be incredibly unfair. It enables people to say almost anything they want. The door to the online world is wide open for crazy people, mean people and folks with an axe to grind.

As I develop my own reputation as something on an online reputation fixer, I have learned that a huge number of folks have issues with our digital world. The Internet plays a major role in how we are perceived, and many of the challenges facing PR professionals today have to do with online issues. Quickly and steadily, the two worlds are starting to collide.

By the way, it’s not always people who have done something terribly wrong who have online troubles. In many cases, folks find themselves in a bad spot because of an honest mistake or an act of immaturity that gets catalogued digitally. Though I hold client engagements in the strictest of confidence, there are some lessons to be learned from them, particularly if we change the names to protect the digitally disenfranchised.Read more